


Bane of the Doctor - Part 9: Tipping Point

by RodimusDoctor



Series: Bane of the Doctor [10]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Psychological Torture, Science Fiction, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-16
Updated: 2014-07-16
Packaged: 2018-02-09 04:09:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1968480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RodimusDoctor/pseuds/RodimusDoctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clara Oswin Oswald and the hologram of River Song board the 8th Doctor's Tardis and search for the 11th Doctor. Meanwhile, Dirge Manson's psychological torture of the 10th Doctor reaches the point of no return...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bane of the Doctor - Part 9: Tipping Point

Clara gasped in awe as she followed River into the 8th Doctor’s Tardis. Very Jules Verne, by way of an old English drawing room. Wood paneling everywhere, including the console where the Doctor was hard at work. Beyond the console, Clara saw an antique rocking chair not at all unlike the one outside in the Delirium Archive. There was a small wooden table next to it, upon which sat a teapot, cup and saucer.

“Well?” River tapped her hardlight foot impatiently. “Where has my Doctor gone?”

“Still working that out,” the Doctor replied, flicking a few switches and looking at his monitor for the results.

“Why didn’t you scan that anomaly with your screwdriver?” Clara asked.

“Scan it?” the Doctor turned to look at her. “With my screwdriver?”

“Well, yes,” Clara said, the Doctor’s tone of voice taking her aback.

“What do you think this is?” he asked, holding up the device in question. “Some sort of magical all-purpose problem-solving device?”

“My Doctor’s was,” Clara told him. “He would... scan the sonic resonance of... things.”

“Is that what he was doing earlier?” the Doctor asked, “just before he disappeared?” He looked at his screwdriver with wonder, as if for the first time. “Scan the sonic resonance of things... what a terrific...”

“Focus, Doctor!” River snapped. “The anomaly?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” the Doctor went back to work. “Why don’t you lighten up?”

There was silence. The Tardis piped in a sound byte of crickets.

“That was a joke,” the Doctor said, smiling sheepishly. “Lighten up? Because you’re entirely made up of... well.” He turned back to the instrument panel.

“He has a point,” Clara said to River. “I know you’re cross, but snapping at everyone isn’t helping.”

“Don’t you lecture me, girl,” River said. “You have no idea of the gravity of this situation.”

“I’m pretty sure I do,” Clara replied. “Just because you were married to the man doesn’t mean you’re the only one who cares.”

“At least I don’t run away!” River said, glaring directly into Clara’s face.

Clara found herself being intimidated again. She straightened her back and returned River’s gaze, determined not to be cowed. Or at least to not show it.

“At least I’m still alive,” Clara said simply. She regretted it instantly – it was a very cheap shot, after all – but the incensed look on River’s face was nevertheless a beautiful thing.

“I do hope I’m not interrupting,” the Doctor cut in, “but I’ve worked out what we’re dealing with.”

“You’ve found the Doctor?” River walked quickly over to the console, Clara right behind her.

“Not exactly,” the Doctor said. “But I’ve found several places he may have gone to. Look there,” he pointed up at his viewscreen. “The anomaly occurs in several time zones, but all of them within the Archive’s structure. I’m not entirely sure what is creating them, but I can offer an educated guess – someone is generating a powerful time field within the Archive. The anomalies are time eddies, bleeding off from the field.  
“It’s possible,” he turned to River and Clara, “that our adversary is using the time field to hide from the main timestream.”

“How could...” Clara began.

“And the Doctor, he’s in one of these time zones?” River asked.

“He must be,” the 8th Doctor replied. “He might even be using the eddies to move in time to try and get back to us. It’s what I’d do. And,” the Doctor looked at his screwdriver again, “if he really can detect them with his sonic...” he rushed around the console, working the controls like the expert he was.

“What are you doing now?” River asked.

“You’re going to track your other self,” Clara said, “by homing in on his screwdriver!”

“More or less, yes,” the Doctor told her. “We’re going back as far as these eddies go, then trace my counterpart’s sonic trail through the time eddies to whenever he is now. At least, that’s what I’ll be doing. You two,” he beckoned them forward, “are going to watch the incoming data. If we’re lucky...”

“...we’ll find a way through the time field!” River finished for him. She hurried around the console and took up her station. “As soon as we do so, I’ll find my dear brother and kill him the same way he killed my husband.”

“The Doctor wouldn’t want that,” Clara said.

“How would you know? You barely know him!” River snapped.

“She’s right, though,” the Doctor told her.

“You’re not him,” River said. “Not yet. Now get us going, we’re wasting time.”

“How is it that you’re my future wife?” the Doctor said as he dematerialized the Tardis and sent it on its way. “I’m honestly not sure what it is I’ll see in you.”

Clara saw a flash of anger on River’s features; the Doctor’s comment had clearly stung. River hid it quickly under one of her mischievous smiles.

“Just you wait, sweetie,” she said, pinching the Doctor’s bottom. “Just you wait.”

 

“I see that you’re still you.”

The 10th Doctor looked up. His sixth incarnation was back, towering over him like a vengeful god.

“I tried,” he said, pitifully.

“Not very hard, it would seem,” the 6th Doctor said with more than a dash of contempt.

“I can’t!” the Doctor cried, unable to meet the eyes of his former self. “I just can’t.”

“You can’t?” the 6th Doctor said. “Or you won’t?”

“I don’t want to go!” the Doctor shouted. “I can still do so much more.”

“Perhaps you can,” the 6th Doctor squatted before him. “But should you?”

“Hey! Whose side are you on?” the Doctor asked.

“Not your side,” the 6th Doctor told him. “I’m not that selfish. I am on the side of justice! Can you still say the same?”

“What?” the Doctor asked, his confusion palpable.

“How many regenerations have you had, Doctor?” his other self asked.

“Nine,” he replied, then recalculated. “Well, ten. Used one up fighting Davros one last time. Oh, and then during the Time War...”

“How many, Doctor?”

“Eleven,” he replied.

“Exactly,” the Sixth Doctor said, and he rose to his feet and stood over him. “You know what is coming.” As he spoke, his clothes slowly turned black.

“No, I don’t, actually,” the Doctor rose to his feet, and noticed that his jacket felt heavier. “What are you...”

“Somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation,” the 6th Doctor said, his clothes becoming a familiar black robe.

“No...” the Doctor said, looking down and seeing the exact same robe on his body.

“An amalgamation of the darker side of your nature,” his sixth form continued.

But it was no longer his sixth form. Instead he was a mirror image of his current incarnation, still decked out in the black garb.

“There is some evil in all of us,” he said, pulling on a black skull cap. “Even me.”

“No... no!” the Doctor backed away from his doppelganger, tripped on his robe and fell to the floor. “I won’t. I can’t!”

“Oh, but you can!” his mirror image said, and his face and hands began to glow. “We have one regeneration left, and it’s the one that sets me free!” Regeneration energy spewed from his hands and head; he approached the Doctor and leaned in close. “I am your future!” His face changed to the one the Doctor had not seen since his trial, all those years and incarnations ago. A face full of malevolence and evil.

“No! Nonononono no,” the Doctor tried to crawl backward but found he couldn’t move.

“I am the Valeyard!” his dark opposite said. “And when you free me, Doctor, the universe will finally be mine!”

The Doctor screamed, clutched his head...

 

“Got you,” I whisper, my heart swelling with triumph. “Doctor, you are ready at last.”


End file.
